Love You Forever
by lilacmermaid33
Summary: 12 Snapshots of a life.
1. June

Friday, June 15, 2012

"All right, wrap it up for me," Mac said, her heart firmly lodged in her throat. She hoped desperately that her voice was steadier than it felt, but the weight of Jim's gaze on her back suggested otherwise. He had been staring at her, curious and increasingly concerned for at least twenty minutes, but she kept her eyes resolutely trained on the monitors before her, pretending not to notice.

Shifting restlessly from one foot to the other while she waited for Will to finish, Mac gripped the back of her chair, which she had abandoned almost an hour ago, far too keyed up to even think about sitting still.

"That's our program for tonight," concluded Will. "Join us next week, when we'll be bringing you the latest from the G20 Summit in Mexico, and the results of the elections in France and Egypt. Terry Smith is coming up next with the Capitol Report from Washington. I'm Will McAvoy. Good night."

Mac closed her eyes for just a second, inhaling deeply as she schooled her features. Then she gathered up her things, abandoning the safety and shadows of her control room, venturing out into the open brightness of the newsroom.

"Good show, everyone," she called as she walked. "Have a great weekend, we'll see you all Monday."

A flood of nervous energy practically pouring out of her, Mac could hardly prevent herself from running all the way to her office, but she forced herself to take measured, ordinary steps, just swift enough to discourage conversation. It was only once the door was firmly shut behind her that Mac spurred into frenzied action, becoming a veritable tornado of activity.

She only had a few minutes before her husband finished getting changed and would come looking for her.

With clammy, trembling hands, Mac busied herself with tidying up her things – putting away her growing collection of markers and pens, logging off her computer, flipping her notepad to the next page and placing it in her desk. She had just finished shutting the drawer when she spied Will out of the corner of her eye, waylaid by Charlie on his way to her office.

Her heart beating wildly out of control, Mac crossed the room, opening her purse on top of her filing cabinet, and began shuffling through it, studiously examining the contents.

Will tapped lightly on the door.

"Come in," Mac croaked, her mouth suddenly dry. She could feel the blood rushing into her cheeks, so she kept her face turned away from him.

"Ready to go?" Will asked.

"Almost," Mac nodded with practiced nonchalance, as she continued to rummage around in her purse. "Could you just pass me my notepad? Top drawer."

The butterflies had been multiplying in her stomach since breakfast, and now it felt as though a small army of them had decided to stage a coup. She bit her lip to rein them back, determined not to give the game away now.

Will set his briefcase down on her desk, rounding it and bending down to open the first drawer. Easily finding what Mac wanted, Will picked up the familiar notepad, glancing at it only briefly before passing it to her.

He had already turned back to her desk, reaching out to pick up his briefcase, before his brain caught up with his eyes.

"Wait," Will said, his voice suddenly hoarse. "What did that say?"

Slowly, as if he were afraid that he had imagined that fleeting glimpse of her writing, Will pivoted back around to face Mac once more. Before his eyes even reached her face, they were arrested in their tracks by the sight of her notepad, now held up in front of her chest.

**HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, WILL**

For several long moments, Will hardly remembered to breathe, because nothing in the world seemed as important just then as reading those words over and over again, until they were branded onto his brain.

When he finally recovered the use of his tongue, Will was only able to manage one word. "Really?" he asked, his voice cracking, as a tear spilled down his cheek.

He looked up, raising his gaze to Mac's face just in time to see her nod, tears of her own welling up in her shining eyes.

The next moment, Will was across the room, sweeping Mac up in his arms, holding her tightly, both of them weeping into the other's neck.

Mac's doctor had warned them not to expect anything to happen right away, but patience had never been one of Mac's virtues, and with every fruitless month that passed, her heart sank a little further. She never said a word about it to Will, never letting on to him just how high she had allowed her hopes to climb, only to have them come plummeting back down to earth every time.

But every crestfallen moment had suddenly become worth it an instant, because as she had watched the awareness slowly dawn on Will's face, her breath catching in her throat, Mac knew that she had never seen anything so beautiful in her entire life.

Pulling back from him with a watery laugh, Mac reached into her purse and pulled out a small white object, which she handed to Will. He stared down at the two pink lines, his eyes swimming in and out of focus as more tears blurred his vision. When he could no longer even see the test in front of him, Will reached out for Mac once more, resting his forehead against hers.

"How long have you known?" Will asked. "Tell me everything."

"Wednesday," Mac replied, still choking back tears. "I wanted it to be perfect, Will, I planned on surprising you with breakfast in bed on Sunday, but when I woke up this morning, I just couldn't keep it a secret even one more day."

Will didn't say anything at first, merely reaching down to take the notepad from Mac's hand. He rifled through it until he found the two pages that she still kept clipped together, the ones that had set this whole thing in motion.

**IT'S NOT**

**BUT IT CAN BE**

After a moment, Will flipped back to the current page, tracing the words with one finger. He set the notepad down on the filing cabinet and turned back to Mac, sliding both of his hands into her hair.

"This is even better," he whispered in her ear, before leaning in and kissing her soundly.

ooo

Will and Mac barely made it through the door of their apartment that night before their hands were all over each other, Will trying to devour every inch of skin he could find, Mac impatiently dragging his mouth back to her lips every time they strayed.

They kept trying to make it to the bedroom, but neither could maintain the resolve to stop kissing for more than five seconds at a time, any longer than it took to draw breath and fill their lungs. Every few feet, one of them would reach out for the other, and they would dive back into a feverish embrace.

They began to shed clothing as they went, so that by the time they finally reached the hallway between the living room and the bedroom, and Will had Mac pinned firmly up against the wall, she was wearing only her skirt and a lacy camisole.

Holding her motionless between his hips and the hands on the back of her thighs, Will bent down, nibbling along the entire length of her collarbone. When he reached the point where her neck and shoulder met, he nipped her skin, sharply enough to make her gasp out loud.

Will grinned against her neck for a second, but then he froze, pulling away from her as if he had been burnt.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked, in a panic.

Without Will's body holding her up, Mac's legs nearly gave out beneath her, and he reached out to steady her before she could begin sliding down the wall. It took a moment longer for his words to penetrate Mac's lust-addled brain.

"What?" she panted, furrowing her eyebrows. "Will, what are you talking about? You do that all the time, you know I like that."

"No, not that," he said, still flustered. "_Yesterday_, when we – Did I hurt you?"

The rest of the fog receded, and a coy smirk came over Mac's lips. "Did you hear me complaining?" she teased.

"Mac, I'm serious," Will said, and her amusement evaporated at once, seeing the absolute terror in his eyes. "What we did, was that bad for you or the baby?"

Mac watched Will go positively cross-eyed as soon as the words were out of his mouth, instantly forgetting his own question. She half-wondered whether he was about to pass out right in front of her.

Ordinarily, Mac would have poked fun at Will for something like this, but she couldn't laugh at him this time. She knew exactly what was going on inside his head, because it was precisely the same thing that was happening in hers – this was the first time that either of them had actually used the word _baby_, and it had temporarily short-circuited both of their brains.

Mac recovered sooner, taking advantage of this renewed composure to lead Will the rest of the way down the hall and into their bedroom. She pulled him down to sit on the bed, his legs dangling over the edge, before settling down beside him.

She sat cross-legged, half-turning her body so she was facing him, and took one of his hands in hers. "The _baby_," Mac stressed deliberately, "is—". Her heart skipped a beat, and she had to swallow, hard, before she could begin again. "The _baby_ and I are just fine. We have an appointment with the doctor on Tuesday. How about you come too, and we can get her to answer all of our questions, okay?"

Will nodded, his fears temporarily allayed, and Mac relaxed, leaning back against the pillows, her camisole riding up a bit as she moved. Will stared, transfixed, at the glimpse of exposed skin, her stomach still perfectly flat.

Leaning sideways across the bed, propped up by his left hand, Will unconsciously raised his right one above her belly. He let it hover there uncertainly, as soon as he realized what he was doing.

Her eyes prickling with fresh tears, Mac reached up to seize Will's hand just before he had the chance to retreat from her, and slowly brought it down to tease against the lower hem of her camisole. Nodding encouragingly up at him, Mac helped Will to lift the material, pulling up on it until her entire abdomen was bare for him. Taking his hand in hers once more, she guided it down to touch her, flinching a little as his fingertips grazed her ticklish skin.

Knowing he had Mac's permission, Will's hesitation was gone in an instant, and his hand pored eagerly over her stomach, every inch of which he knew as well as or better than his own. His head spun when he tried to imagine the changes that would come over her body in the next few months.

Pausing briefly so he could climb properly onto the bed, Will's right hand was soon joined by his left, and then by his mouth, softly nuzzling and rubbing and kissing Mac's belly like he would never be able to get enough, not if he could spend the rest of his life doing this.

"I know it's too early, Mac," Will rambled against her stomach. "I know there's nothing to feel yet, I just – _Mac_!"

It didn't even matter that Will's words, usually so reliable, had abandoned him, because every loving, joyful touch of his fingers and lips spoke volumes.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

Thank you so much for reading! You guys, I can't even tell you how excited I am about this project! I'm usually not a fan of original characters in fanfic, but I am unbelievably in love with this one. I hope you will be too!

With this story, I'm trying something different, for me: I often feel the need to give pages and pages of exposition before I get to the story I actually want to tell, so I'm really trying here to just give snapshots, covering no more than a couple days at most for each chapter, without explaining absolutely every little detail. Let me know what you think!

And if you don't know where my title comes from, then you need to RUN to the nearest library or bookstore and look up Robert Munsch, because it is just not acceptable to have lived this long without knowing that book. Seriously.


	2. November

**Tuesday, November 6th, 2012**

It was deliciously warm in that fuzzy realm, halfway between sleeping and wakefulness. The weight pressing down on her bladder for most of the night had finally shifted, and Will's arm was draped around her waist, their hands overlapping slightly on her expanding stomach. Mac stretched contentedly, letting out a hum of pleasure.

This was followed immediately by a sharp intake of breath, as she felt a swift kick in the vicinity of her hipbone. When it came again, and then a third and fourth time, Mac groaned, and tried to lift Will's arm off of her, but he tightened his grip.

"Don't have to get up so early," he mumbled sleepily into her neck. "We don't have to be in until five today."

"_You_ don't have to get up, but I do," she grumbled, shifting uncomfortably. "Your child is using my hip as a trampoline."

That got Will's attention. Blinking blearily, he released Mac at once, helping her to roll over to face him. "Anything I can do?" he asked.

"Nothing," Mac smiled, shaking her head. She leaned down and kissed him gently. "I'm just going to get up and walk around for a bit, see if I can get the baby to move. You go back to sleep, I know I kept you up last night with all my tossing and turning."

Mac padded softly into the kitchen, turning on the coffee maker and pouring herself a glass of juice as she stretched. "Come on, little one," she pleaded, wincing, one hand rubbing her stomach as she braced herself against the counter with the other. "Give Mummy a break here."

Another kick, harder this time. Mac groaned. "How are your Daddy and I supposed to raise you if I can't even get you to listen to me now?" she asked, worrying at her bottom lip. How on earth would she manage with a screaming toddler or a hormonal teenager?

She waited, holding her breath in anticipation of another sharp pain, but when the next kick did come, it was much gentler, and right underneath her hand. She smiled and unclenched, sighing with relief. "Thank you," she murmured gratefully, her almost ever-present anxiety fading for the moment. She poured herself a bowl of cereal, and hoisted herself up on one of the bar stools to eat it while perusing yesterday's paper.

Before the first bites of her breakfast were even soggy, Mac heard their bedroom door open, and a moment later, Will joined her in the kitchen, just as she had known he would. He had never slept well without her warm body beside him, especially these days.

"Better?" Will asked, resting a hand on her belly as he reached for his coffee.

"Much," Mac said, beaming when a tiny foot kicked Will's hand. She would never get over that feeling of awe, that their child always seemed to recognize Will when he touched her.

Mac was just reaching for her cereal once more, when she let out an enormous yawn.

Will frowned. "Mac, are you sure I can't convince you to take some time off before the baby's born?"

Mac sighed, putting down her spoon and resting her head in her hands. "Will, we've talked about this a hundred times," she implored. "I'm willing to cut back – I've already handed more responsibility over to Jim than I ever planned on doing this early – but I've got to keep working or I'll go crazy."

"I just worry about you, Mac," Will said quietly, looking down at the mug in his hand. "I worry so much about both of you."

She sighed again. "I know you do," she said softly, taking the mug from him and setting it on the counter so she could take his hands in hers. "But look at me, Will. Really look. When's the last time I forgot to eat, or refused to take a nap when you thought I should?"

"You haven't," he admitted. "You've been doing everything right from the beginning."

"Yeah," she said, squeezing his hands. "Believe me, Will, I get how serious this is. I've never been so serious about anything in my entire life. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize this."

"I know," Will said, groaning. "But I'm always going to worry, you know? I can't help it. I just don't want to see you let yourself get too stressed."

"Will, you know me," entreated Mac, standing up to face him properly. "99% of the time, work _isn't_ stressful for me, it's an adrenaline rush, and that isn't a bad thing. You know I'll stress myself out a million times worse if you go off to work, and I have to just sit here all day with nothing to do, leaving me with all this time to think and freak myself out."

Mac was almost panting by the end of this, and Will shot her a knowing glance, before pulling her into his arms, one hand rubbing up and down her back. "What was the nightmare about this time?" he asked. "I didn't think you even got enough sleep to have any dreams last night."

"It was a little girl this time," Mac mumbled dispiritedly. "She was in grade one and she asked me for help with her math homework, and I couldn't do it." She sniffled and hid her face in his t-shirt. "I couldn't do it, Will," she repeated, knowing she was being ridiculous as her eyes welled up with tears. "What kind of mother will I be if I can't even help my child learn to add and subtract?"

"Shhhhh," Will murmured soothingly. He knew from past experience that if he didn't head her off now, she could keep going like this for hours, getting herself all worked up over nothing. "It was just a dream, Mac. You are going to be the most amazing mother, you know that."

"But what about—"

"You and I both have our weaknesses, and we'll compensate for each other, just like we've always done, Mac," he said patiently. "I'll take care of the math, and the cooking, and the music. You'll make sure that our kid learns to speak French and German and ten other languages, and you'll have to be the one they come to when they have a loose tooth or a scraped knee. We balance each other out, Mac. We're going to be fine."

It took a few seconds, but eventually, with his warm arms surrounding her, the conviction behind Will's words finally began to sink in and Mac nodded, sagging heavily against him as most of the tension slowly drained from her body. She couldn't imagine how she had ever believed she would get through this with her sanity intact if she didn't have Will standing by her side, patiently reasoning with her and keeping her distracted throughout every waking hour.

She had concealed all of her anxieties from him for almost five months, before finally imploding in the middle of the newsroom one day, after Sloan had asked her whether or not she planned to breastfeed once the baby was born. Luckily, Will had been at hand, and he had marched Mac straight into her office, coaxing the entire thing out of her as she dissolved into a sobbing wreck in his arms.

After that, he became far more attuned to her moods, and he wouldn't let her keep any of it to herself when he could tell she was fretting over something. Mac hated to add to his worries by burdening him with all her silly nightmares, but she couldn't deny that she always felt better once she got her concerns off her chest.

At the same time, Mac couldn't help feeling more than a little jealous that Will had managed to remain so calm throughout her entire pregnancy. He may have worried nonstop about her and the baby, reminding her constantly to take her vitamins or to drink more water, but anytime the talk turned to midnight feedings or dirty diapers, Will never so much as flinched, and whenever he thought about playing baseball with their daughter or teaching their son how to play the guitar, his entire face simply lit up.

"We need to start thinking about names, Will," Mac murmured into his shoulder, picking up on the other issue that had been niggling at her recently. Reluctantly pulling herself out of his arms, she grabbed his coffee and the soggy remnants of her cereal, and led him into the living room. "We can't just keep saying 'your child' or 'the baby' all the time."

Will nodded, and they settled down together on the couch. He reached for a couple of the books of baby names that had been gathering dust on the coffee table for months, handing one of them to her.

Mac had been dreading this part, a little bit. She had never been one of those girls who had long lists of baby names picked out by the time she was seven, and she just felt so much pressure to get it right that she had been putting it off, but there wasn't much time left now. Last week, she had woken up in a cold sweat after a nightmare in which they had sent their daughter off to university, still calling her Baby.

"Girls names first?" she suggested, all business-like, jumping right in with both feet as she always did when she was afraid of something.

Will agreed, and he opened his book to the first page, while Mac flipped randomly to the middle of her book.

"Alice?" he suggested.

Mac made a face. "Alice was my great-aunt," she said. "She always smelled like mothballs, and she never let me leave the dinner table until I finished all of my creamed spinach." She shuddered. "What about Kennedy?"

Will rolled his eyes. "I'm not naming my daughter after the Kennedy family," he asserted. "Do you really want all the RINO talk to start up again?"

An hour later, they were no closer to naming their unborn child, Will having also ruled out Olivia, Julia and Isabella, and Mac having vetoed Abigail, Lucy and Madeleine. They had no better luck when they turned to boys names, as Will preferred more traditional names like Oliver and Benjamin, whereas Mac gravitated towards names like Gabriel and Caleb.

Finally, with the baby having settled back into his or her favourite position of pressing down on her bladder once more, Mac had had enough. "We'd better get going," she said, glancing up at the clock.

Twenty minutes later, they were out the door and on the way to the elementary school a few blocks from their apartment. There were already many people ahead of them, so they joined the line, Mac leaning against Will when she became tired.

"How about Hugh?" she suggested, her eyes closed, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Careful, Mac, your British-ness is showing," Will teased, nudging her. "Any kid in America named Hugh is going to get laughed out of whatever school we send him to."

Mac stuck her tongue out at him, too tired to think of a clever retort.

"What about Hannah?" asked Will.

"That's so boring," Mac complained.

Luckily, the line was moving fairly quickly, and Will and Mac soon found themselves in polling booths across the gym from each other. They looked up at each other, making eye contact just as they were reaching for their ballots and their pencils. Will winked, and Mac smirked back, shaking her head, both of them knowing that their votes were essentially canceling each other out.

They met up again outside the school, linking hands once more.

"How about Paul?" Will asked, his eyes dancing with laughter.

Mac shot him a withering glare. "No, and not Ryan either," she said, poking him in the ribs. "And if I see you so much as thinking the name Mitt, you are sleeping on the couch tonight, McAvoy."

Will laughed, edging away from her index finger, but he could see that she was growing tired of their little game. Well, growing tired, period. By the time they got home, Mac was almost asleep on her feet.

"How about a nap?" Will suggested carefully. "We still have almost six hours before we have to be at work, and I know you barely slept last night."

"Not unless you'll join me," Mac protested half-heartedly, but she was already pulling him towards their bedroom as she spoke.

She curled up in her usual position on her left side, moaning appreciatively as Will massaged her lower back. She was asleep in less than a minute.

ooo

By the time Will and Mac arrived at the studio that afternoon, the newsroom was already a beehive of activity, with reporters swarming everywhere, calling out names and numbers from the exit polling data they had received from their sources on the ground.

While Will got changed and ready to go on the air, Mac found Jim amidst all the chaos, and got him to catch her up. By the time Mac had her headset on, Will was seated at the anchor desk with Sloan, Elliot, and their usual team of political analysts, ready for the first polling stations to close, and the raw numbers to start pouring in.

It was easy, on a night like this, to get caught up in the excitement, to never take your eyes off the numbers, to forget to take a moment to just breathe, but tonight was different – Will made sure of that. He was as focused as ever on the news, but every so often, during the commercial breaks, he would check in with Mac, asking if the baby was kicking or if she had remembered to sit down and rest recently.

Later, after an interview with Senator John McCain, during which he discussed the differences between the 2012 election campaign and the one in 2008, Mac saw a smirk cross Will's face on one of the monitors, and she knew at once that he was still thinking back to their discussion from that morning.

"Hey, Mac," he said, biting his cheek to keep from laughing outright, "How about Sarah, if it's a girl?"

Mac snorted inelegantly. "Only if I can name the next one Hillary," she retorted.

For the rest of the evening, though the room was hectic and crowded around them, Will and Mac felt like the only two people in the world, laughing and shooting names back and forth at each other whenever they could, each suggestion growing increasingly more ludicrous as the night wore on.

"How about Olympia, Mac?" Will got in, just before the end of a commercial break.

"Will, we're going live to Kirsten Gillibrand next," she said, trying not to giggle as she pretended to ignore him. "She was just re-elected. How about Kirsten for our little girl, Will?" Mac smirked, knowing that she had the upper hand for the moment – Will would have to wait until the next commercial break to speak to her, while she could keep talking in his ear all night long.

ooo

By eleven o'clock, it was all but confirmed that Barack Obama had won a second term in the White House, but it wasn't until more than three hours later, after all the speeches and analysis were done for the night, that Will and Mac finally stumbled back into their apartment, both of them so tired that they could have slept for a week.

"Okay, I admit it," Mac yawned, as they changed for bed. "That nap this afternoon was a _really_ good idea. And so was telling Charlie we were coming in late, even if you did that behind my back. I'm never questioning you on anything ever again."

"I'll remember that when you're arguing you with me tomorrow," quipped Will, climbing into bed, lifting the covers for Mac and tucking himself up against her as soon as she joined him.

Mac waited for Will to lean over her and turn off the lights, as he did every night, but tonight, Will didn't move. He was curiously tense, and they were so close together that Mac could feel it when he took a deep breath in, opening his mouth to speak, before changing his mind and closing it again.

"What is it?" she asked, rolling over onto her back so she could look at him properly.

"I'm not – I'm not hovering too much, am I?" Will asked, frowning uncertainly. "I really don't mean to, I just—"

Mac cut him off, pressing her index finger to his lips before he had the chance to get too worked up. "You're not," she promised, quietly but firmly. "I know you want what's best for us, and I love how involved you are. I know I give you a hard time sometimes, but you wouldn't be you if you weren't trying to take care of us every moment of the day. I don't want you to stop."

Mac kissed him gently, reinforcing her words, and when Will's body finally relaxed against hers, she knew he had gotten the message.

"Listen, this whole name thing?" Will went on. "We're never going to agree on anything the way we've been doing this, so I've been thinking – let's just toss out all those books."

"What?" Mac asked, her face scrunching up so adorably in confusion that he had to lean down to kiss it before he could go on.

"You and I have always done better without a script anyway, haven't we?" he explained. "We don't need them. Let's just talk this through and come up with some names on our own."

Mac smiled, and nodded, relaxing against him. "I have an idea, too," she replied, reaching for his hand. "Let's make a deal. If it's a girl, I get to pick the first name, and you get to choose the middle. If it's a boy, the first name is your choice. How does that sound?"

Will smiled, rubbing Mac's stomach. "I love it," he said, grinning even wider when the baby kicked his hand. Though they were both exhausted, neither Will nor Mac made any effort to move, both of them too mesmerized by the sight before them.

They were silent for a few minutes, before Mac suddenly nudged him. "Charlotte," she said, choking up a little. "That's the name I choose for a girl. Charlotte."

Will's eyes shone brightly. "Charlie will like that," he said, nodding. "It's fitting, since it's really his fault we found each other again in the first place." He paused. "Charlotte Mackenzie?"

Mac pursed her lips. "My name sounds kind of funny as a middle name," she said.

"Charlotte Rose, then?" Will asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Rose was Mac's middle name, and the name of her beloved grandmother.

Mac's eyes locked with Will. "That's it," she said, one tear spilling down onto her cheek. "Charlotte Rose. It's perfect."

Will's hand returned to her stomach, stroking gently.

"And for a boy?" she asked.

"I don't know yet," Will said. "I'm still thinking."

"Well, his middle name is going to be William," Mac said, settling down against him, feeling more relaxed than she had in months.

"Not Edward?" Will asked. Edward and Jean McHale only had one child, and Will knew that it would mean a lot to Mac to be able to honour her father, with whom she was very close. Frankly, he was also a father figure for Will, certainly more than his own had been.

Mac shook her head. "I love my Dad, but any son of mine is going to have your name," she said firmly, before yawning again.

"Okay," Will smiled, and, taking that yawn as his cue, he leaned across her to turn off the lights. He bent down and kissed her deeply, her arms wrapping around him. "Goodnight, Mac," he said. "I love you."

"Love you too, Will," she replied sleepily.

Then, as he had done every night since they had seen their child on that very first sonogram, Will shuffled down the bed, under the comforter, and lay his head and one hand against her growing belly, for his daily conversation with their son or daughter. Their talk, as always, was private, in a whisper too low even for Mac to hear it, but she rested one hand on Will's head, her fingers tangling through his hair.

_Yes, _Mac thought, letting her eyes fall shut_, this man is going to be a wonderful father_. She was still painfully unsure of her own ability to be a mother most of the time, but of Will, Mac was absolutely certain. It already made her want to cry on an hourly basis, with how generous and thoughtful and attentive he was.

_And he could never be too clingy_, Mac decided, recalling Will's concern as she drifted off to sleep. Certainly, she would have hated to have _everyone_ fawning over her, but with Will, it was different. After almost four years of falling asleep alone, aching to have his arms around her, she was never going to take his love for granted ever again.

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**:

Well? Have I sent you into diabetic shock with all this sugary fluff?

I've always known that this chapter was going to be set in November, but it took an embarrassingly long time (last weekend, in fact) before I realized that I could set this chapter on Election Day. Once again, once I had that, the entire thing came together, and this chapter pretty much wrote itself in one day … I'm not sure that's ever happened to me before!

Once again, thank you so much for reading! I hope you'll leave a review!


	3. January

**January 21, 2013**

The hour before dawn simply crawled by on Inauguration Day – Mac watched every minute of it tick by on the clock, praying all the while for even ten minutes of sleep. When her prayers were not granted, Mac sighed wearily, and prepared to get up. As much as she dreaded leaving the cozy nest of pillows and blankets on their bed, eventually neither her sanity nor her bladder could wait any longer. Which left only one problem…

"Will?" she whispered in the darkness. His hand rested in its customary place on her growing belly, and she stroked it as softly as possible to rouse him.

Will sprang up in the bed so fast he might as well have received an electric shock. "What is it? Whassamatter?" he slurred blearily, reaching clumsily for his phone.

Mac sighed, and sat up beside him, pulling him into her arms. "Nothing, I'm fine," she murmured, soothingly stroking his back. "I just need to get up again. Everything's fine, Will."

Will exhaled loudly and sagged against her, his heart racing so fast that she could practically hear it. "You've got to calm down, sweetheart," she said, more than a little distressed. "You're going to give yourself a heart attack."

She convinced him, barely, to lay back down, taking deep breaths, but she knew that it would be pointless to suggest that he go back to sleep, not until she rejoined him.

_I don't know how many more times I can do this_, Mac fretted, as she waddled from the bed to the bathroom, Will's gaze on her the entire time. Tonight alone they had been through the same thing three times.

Two weeks ago, Mac had woken up to discover that the baby had dropped overnight. Will's eyes had practically bugged out of his skull when she showed him her stomach that morning, and ever since, he had been on high alert.

Nights were the worst. It didn't matter whether she tried to wake him quietly, or simply tried to slip from the bed without disturbing him – he shot straight up every single time, his fingers poised to call for the car to take them to the hospital. And every time, she was left trying to talk him down. By the time she was able to slow his heart down to a less alarming rate, she needed to get up again, starting the whole process all over again.

It was exhausting.

The one good thing was that, in the week leading up to the inauguration, Mac hardly went in to work. It was a compromise – she was allowed to produce the show each night, and to join in all of their meetings from home on her phone, but the rest of the time, she was meant to be resting.

Much to Mac's surprise, she truly didn't mind. She was getting so little sleep these days that any excuse for a nap was looked upon as a godsend. It didn't even occur to her to protest.

Inauguration Day itself, however, would be a different story. Mac had decided months ago that tonight would be their last broadcast before she went on maternity leave, and that meant both of them being there for the better part of the day. Once Will signed off for the night, they would both be taking some time off, giving them almost two weeks before the baby was born to get everything settled.

She hoped they both survived that long.

ooo

Will spent more than three hours at the anchor desk that morning, frequently bouncing back to Terry Smith, who was live on location in Washington.

In the control room, Mac shifted ceaselessly in her chair, trying to find any position that would alleviate the pressure in her lower back even the tiniest bit. By the time the President began his inaugural address, she had abandoned the chair entirely, leaning forward on the desk until she was bent almost entirely horizontal, and daring any of the concerned staff hovering around her to say a single word.

After the ceremony, Will and Mac sat in his office, writing his evening script together as they ate their lunch. It was to be an extended, two-hour edition of News Night. In between highlights from the morning's ceremony and live coverage of the inaugural ball in Washington, the team had prepared a number of segments looking ahead at the next four years. Both Will and Mac were really very excited about it. They might both be taking a temporary leave of absence after tonight, but Mac, especially, was determined to see them go out with a bang.

Their shared enthusiasm was not enough, however, to distract Will from the grimaces that periodically kept crossing Mac's face. "You okay?" he asked with trepidation, unable to conceal the flash of panic in his eyes.

Mac smiled wanly. "I'm fine, Will," she reassured him. "I feel like I haven't slept properly in twenty years, my back has fused into one gigantic knot, and this little one keeps finding increasingly agonizing ways to stretch my insides, but I'm fine. This is normal at this stage."

Will's eyes filled with a mixture of guilt and pain, making Mac wish that she could take back her words, concealing all of her discomfort from him, but it was too late for that.

"I wish I could do this for you," Will murmured apologetically, helping her to lean forward in her chair and massaging her lower back. She moaned appreciatively. "It's so hard to see you like this."

"I know," she replied, her voice muffled in the arms of her shirt. "But it's almost over. Let's just get through tonight, okay? I really don't want to miss this."

Will didn't argue, didn't say a word, in fact, but through his silence, Mac could feel the ever-present anxiety coming off of him in waves, and it gnawed at her, aching just as much as all the other pain she was experiencing.

By the time they were both satisfied with the draft of his script, it was almost time for the next production meeting, and Mac bit her lip, loath to tell Will what she was considering. She was just weighing her fatigue against how much she knew it was going to worry him, when a particularly strong wave of exhaustion made her decision for her. She groaned.

"Tell Jim he's in charge of the meeting," she conceded, running one defeated hand through her hair. "I'm going to stay in here and try to nap this afternoon. I'll be there for the rundown, he can catch me up then, okay?"

"Want me to stay with you?" Will asked anxiously, the words spilling out of him before he could stop himself. "Want me to bring you home?"

"No, Will," Mac sighed, stroking his arm and drawing on every shred of patience and understanding she possessed. "One of us needs to be there. I'll be fine. I'll come get you if I need you, okay?"

Will did not appear at all convinced, but Mac crossed her arms in front of her chest, staring resolutely back at him until he kissed her and left the room. As soon as he was gone, Mac made her way over to the couch in the corner of the office. She sank into it with a loud groan, the mask she had been wearing slipping from her features.

Curling up on her side as best she could on the small couch, Mac closed her eyes the second her head hit the pillow, one hand stroking her growing belly. Despite the steady, aching waves, and the heavy feeling in her abdomen, she was asleep within seconds.

ooo

When Mac rejoined the team for the final meeting, her mask was firmly back in place, but she really was feeling much more rested. Sleeping on the couch had done nothing to ease her aching back, however, so she stood for the entire meeting, leaning forward on the table and gritting her teeth as Jim and the others presented her with the rundown.

When they were finished, and looking over at her for approval, she managed a smile. "Good job," Mac praised, squeezing Jim's shoulder. "I really am impressed. Let's go do this, okay?"

Will was already settled back at the anchor desk by the time Mac entered the control room, moving much more slowly than usual. She was just reaching forward for her chair when her eyes suddenly flew wide open. She allowed a small gasp to escape her lips before grabbing for her headset, gingerly stepping away from the desk.

"Ready to do this, Will?" she asked, a little breathlessly. He nodded. "Alright, you're on in sixty seconds. Good show!"

Making absolutely sure to switch off her headset, Mac stared resolutely at the monitors, breathing hard. "Maggie?" she said, when she was sure that she could speak without her voice shaking. "I need you to call for a car to meet me downstairs _right now_. Jim, you're running the show tonight."

Only then did she turn to face her team, all of whom were staring at her as if she had suddenly sprouted a second head. Maggie gaped at her for a moment before obeying, scurrying out into the newsroom to make the call.

Jim, however, was a little slower on the uptake. "What?" he sputtered. "But we're starting in thirty seconds, I can't—"

But Mac didn't have time for protestations. "Jim, I have been in labour since lunchtime," she interrupted. "My contractions are now five minutes apart, and my water just broke all over the floor. I need to go _now_."

As she was speaking, Mac held her headset out to Jim. "What about Will?" he asked, his eyes wide, as he fumbled to put it on.

Mac's heart clenched painfully. This was the hard part. "Don't tell Will," she choked. "I want him to finish this."

"But—"

"Not a word until 10:00, Jim," Mac implored. "_Please_." Seeing Maggie waving to her from the doorway, flushed and nodding, Mac swept from the control room without another word.

Jim switched the headset back on, his heart sinking. He didn't want to think about how much Will was going to kill him for this.

ooo

Mercifully, the hospital was only a few minutes drive from the ACN building, and Mac's sympathetic driver managed to miss every red light on the way there. Before the clock struck the bottom of the hour, she found herself lying in a private delivery room, wearing a hospital gown, her legs propped open so the doctor could examine her.

Only then did she begin to have second thoughts.

"Will," she whimpered pitifully, needing him. She needed to hear, just one more time, that she wasn't going to be a terrible mother, that they could really do this, but he wasn't there. She had made sure of that.

"Can we call your husband for you, Ms. McHale?" one of the nurses offered.

Mac didn't have time to reply before another contraction hit her, the strongest one so far, and the wail that escaped her lips terrified even her. Paradoxically, this strengthened her resolve – it would _kill_ Will to see her like this, she was sure of it. As soon as the contraction passed, she shook her head vehemently. She was doing this on her own.

"Turn the TV on to ACN," she panted, once she could speak again. "And I'm going to need a pair of headphones."

ooo

A cold sweat trickled down Jim's back as he tried everything he could to keep this show running. Will had almost fallen out of his chair the first time Jim spoke in his ear, though Jim had been careful to keep his voice calm and steady. He hoped that he and the team were the only ones who could see the anxiety that had flooded into Will's eyes, and had remained there for the rest of the show.

In that first commercial break, and in every one since then, Will had demanded to know what was going on, where Mac was, when she would be coming back.

"She's just stepped out for a bit," Jim kept repeating, desperately trying to figure out what he would do if Will just got up and left in the middle of the broadcast. He hoped Mac could convince Will not to fire him when this was all over. "She asked me to take over for a while. Now, we have an interview with John Boehner coming up, and then we're going back to the inaugural ball. The President is set to arrive in five minutes…"

ooo

Over the next hour and a half, Mac rode out her contractions, which were growing increasingly stronger and closer together. Curiously, the commercials and the highlights of the day always occurred _between_ contractions, meaning that each time a new one began, Will's face appeared on the screen, giving her the beacon she needed to focus on. Mac was overwhelmingly grateful for this, and she clasped her hands tightly over her headphones every time, so that his calm and steady voice in her ear would not be drowned out by the sounds of her screams.

"You're at 10 cm, Mackenzie," the doctor told her, shortly before 10:00. "When the next contraction comes, I need you to push, okay?"

A thrill of terror came over her, but as soon as she felt the next wave approaching, she squared her shoulders and bore down.

ooo

The second the clock hit 10:00, Will ripped off the earpiece and microphone, throwing them onto the anchor desk and charging into the control room, where his entire team was waiting for him.

"WHERE IS SHE?" he roared. The only thing that was stronger than his anger in that moment was his fear, and that was rapidly spiraling out of control.

"She went into labour," Jim admitted, barely restraining himself from diving under the desk and hiding. He had survived a war zone, for goodness sake. "She left for the hospital as soon as the show started. She said not to tell you."

Will froze, stunned. "She WHAT?" he demanded. "She—"

But before he could launch into a full-blown tirade, Maggie had the good sense to cut him off. "There's a car already waiting for you downstairs. You should go now."

She didn't need to tell him twice.

ooo

In a matter of minutes, it was all over. One second, she was being torn apart from the inside, and the next, all of her senses had deserted her, all but one.

As she collapsed, panting, back against the pillows, she was dimly aware of several doctors and nurses bustling around – one of them even might have been trying to tell her something – but the single thing Mac was aware of was a shrill and furious wail.

"My baby," Mac whimpered, tears leaking from the sides of her eyes as she struggled to keep them open.

It was only a few minutes, but to Mac it felt like an eternity, before one of the nurses came back over to her bed. A few minutes ago, every muscle in her body had been shaking with exhaustion, but as the nurse lowered the still howling bundle into her arms, Mac could not have been steadier.

Oh.

_Oh_.

_An arrow is _exactly_ what this feels like_, Mac thought dazedly. She had teased Jim about that on their first day back at ACN. "Cupid! Bam!" she had said, like she could make him fall in love with Maggie simply by commanding it. _I am _never_ joking about this feeling ever again_, she decided, thoroughly awestruck. It was just too overwhelming, too powerful, and nothing in the world could have prepared her for it. If she had been standing, it would have brought her to her knees.

She had felt this same feeling once before, though that time she had been pretty sure it meant that she was dying. It was in the same moment that she had known that things were over between her and Will. Well, look at how far they had come since then. She was cradling _his baby_ in her arms.

"Hi," she said to the baby, her voice quavering softly. It was soft and warm and heavy in her arms, and without even thinking, she leaned down to kiss it on the forehead. Then she flushed, feeling suddenly foolish, and a wave of uncertainty just as powerful as her labour pains threatened to tear her apart. _Was this okay? What was she supposed to say, supposed to do? Will would know, he wouldn't be screwing this up already._

Only then did the baby in her arms open its eyes, gazing straight up at her as its cries petered out. Mac inhaled sharply, her own eyes welling with a flood of tears even as a calm certainty settled over her. Because those were _Will's_ eyes staring up at her, the most perfect shade of blue she had ever seen.

_We're going to be fine_, the baby told her, as she dissolved into uncontrollable sobs, told her just as clearly as if it could already speak. You_ are going to be just fine_.

ooo

By the time Will found them, Mac's tears had finally ceased, but nothing in the world could have prevailed upon her to stop kissing every inch of skin that she could reach, or caressing those ten tiny perfect little fingers.

Mac was just finishing up the baby's first feeding when he arrived, arranging her nightgown back into place, and Will hovered in the doorway, the breath stolen from his lungs at the sight before him. He watched Mac lean down for another kiss before he decided to make his presence known.

"I should be furious with you," Will said, though every ounce of his anger had evaporated the instant he laid eyes on the pair of them. "I should have been here."

Mac's eyes shot up to meet his, and Will was bowled over once again by the joy and love shining back at him. "I know, and I'm sorry," Mac said, regretfully. "I really wanted you to finish the show, we'd worked so hard to get it right. I never imagined it would be over so soon."

Still, Will didn't move to enter the room. "That," he replied, "_and_ you wanted to protect me."

Mac had thought that she was through with crying tonight, but her eyes filled with fresh, guilty tears at his words. "Will, I—"

"It's alright, Mac," he assured her quickly. "I get it. It's what we've always done, right?"

Mac nodded, so relieved that she could hardly speak. Then, remembering herself, she beckoned to Will, shuffling over to make some room for him on the bed. "Come here?" she asked, suddenly shy. "I've got someone I'd really like you to meet."

Will walked slowly into the room, and lay down beside her on the bed. She repositioned them so that Will could get a better look, though she couldn't bring herself to let the baby out of her arms just yet, not even for him. She could actually _see_ the moment that he, too, fell in love with their child, and her heart overflowed with happiness once more.

Will pushed back the baby's hat, just enough to reveal the tufts of dark hair underneath. "_Your_ hair," he said, grinning stupidly, his eyes welling with tears of his own. "And your nose, and your mouth," he added, tracing each of the baby's features as he named them.

"But your ears," Mac chimed in, showing him. "And your beautiful eyes." They were closed now, though, worn out from all of the excitement. Later, she would share with Will just what that feature had meant to her, and the role that he himself had played in getting her through the delivery, but for now she had something more important on her mind.

"So?" she asked, turning her head to look at Will. "What's my little guy's name?"

Will's heart leaped in his chest, remembering their deal. "It's a boy?" he asked, a bit dimly. Only then did he notice that the hat and the blanket the baby was wrapped in were both blue. So much for being an observant journalist.

"Yeah," Mac laughed softly. "My beautiful baby boy." She kissed him once more on the cheek, lingering for a second to breathe in the scent of him. She was never going to get enough of this. "So?" she repeated, turning back to her husband.

Will paused. "Theodore?" he suggested, shyly. "I was thinking we could call him—"

"Teddy?" Mac whimpered. Will nodded, and her eyes overflowed with tears once more. He thought that Edward – Ted – McHale would appreciate that, and this way Mac could honour _both_ of the most important men in her life. "Theodore William McAvoy," she whispered. "It's _perfect_, Will."

Though Mac could quite happily have lain there, holding Teddy in her arms for the rest of time, it was becoming harder and harder to keep her eyes open, so she carefully handed him over to Will, allowing him to hold his son in his arms for the first time.

She lay her head on Will's chest, watching father and son together for as long as she could, before she fell asleep.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thank you so much for reading! This chapter is where the fic really began for me, because I got the idea for the story from one of my own prompts: **Mac never thought she could love anyone as much as she loves Will. Then, she gave birth to his son.**

I never imagined that this chapter would be ready so soon, but once again most of it honestly seemed to write itself. I wish all of my stories were like this!

I know I was a little bit mean to Will here, but I hope you can understand why I did it. I really hope you'll leave a review and tell me what you think!


	4. February

**Tuesday, February 5, 2013**

It was one in the morning when the silence of the penthouse apartment was torn apart by a broken, angry wail coming through the baby monitor. Both parents were jolted abruptly from their fitful sleep, and Mac moaned pitifully into her pillow.

For all that she and Will were naturally obsessive workaholics who stopped to rest only when their bodies physically gave out on them, neither of them had received _this_ little sleep since college. For the better part of two weeks, Teddy had been waking them every two or three hours, at least, and it was beginning to feel like they were never going to get a decent night's sleep ever again.

They were loving every minute of it.

Tonight, however, it seemed to Mac as though she had stumbled back into bed after Teddy's midnight feeding only seconds ago, barely finding the energy to peel off her shirt and wriggle back into the warmth of Will's embrace before she lost consciousness.

Teddy usually slept heavily, and drifted off as soon as he was swaddled again, in a way that left both Will and Mac absolutely baffled. Tonight, however, he had been fussy, not wanting Mac to put him down even for a moment. Mac hadn't been able to find it in her heart to refuse him, not when he was blinking tearfully up at her with Will's bright eyes, so she had spent an eternity strolling around the apartment, rocking him in her arms until he finally settled down.

Before her brain could catch up and remember exactly how tired she was, Mac resolved to get up. Another weary groan involuntarily escaping her lips, Mac lifted Will's arm from around her waist, and heaved herself up onto her elbows. In all her restlessness since returning to bed, however, Mac's legs had somehow gotten all twisted up under the covers, and she could barely move from where she lay.

As she was reaching down to untangle herself, Mac felt Will's arm reach back around her, grabbing her hip and pulling her firmly back into the hollow of his chest.

"Will?" she asked quizzically. Even as she spoke, Teddy's cries were rising steadily in both pitch and volume, and if they didn't head him off soon, they wouldn't need the monitor to hear him from the nursery across the hall, and would instead be hearing him in stereo.

"Give me a second," Will said, his voice rough and sleepy and low.

Realization slowly dawning, Mac twisted slightly in his arms, lifting herself just enough so that she could see Will's face. When she did, her heart simply melted.

He was listening to Teddy cry, listening intently, his eyes so narrowed in concentration that they were nearly sewn shut. Though she hated to let Teddy go this long without attending to him, she had a feeling they were on the verge of a major breakthrough, and there was no way she was going to interrupt it now.

"That's his … diaper cry?" Will asked at last, opening his eyes and peering up at her for reassurance.

"Yes!" Mac nodded excitedly, her heart filled to overflowing.

Will let out a long sigh of relief, and in it, Mac could hear the release of nearly two weeks' worth of tension. She squeezed his shoulder, the only part of him she could easily reach, and beamed from ear to ear, in spite of the darkness and their shared exhaustion.

Will had been wonderful and attentive every day since Teddy was born, rocking or changing him whenever Mac told him to, but a palpable sense of frustration had been mounting steadily inside of him. Mac just seemed to know instinctively whether Teddy was crying because he was hungry, because he was tired, because he was afraid of the dark. Will, on the other hand, felt like he was constantly guessing, and a man of his brilliance was not used to having all the answers right at his fingertips.

Mac had taken to sitting down with Will whenever they had a moment to themselves, and, using the same tricks she had perfected over the years in describing the nuances in tone and vocabulary that she wanted from her anchor, she did her best to differentiate for him the sounds of his son's cries.

It had been very slow going, however, and every time Teddy started whimpering again, Will was still left staring blankly and unhappily at Mac until she told him what to do. Tonight was the first time he had gotten it right with no help from her, and she couldn't have been more proud.

"I'll get him this time," Will said, rising from the bed. "You go back to sleep for a while."

Mac moaned gratefully, and sank back into the mattress. She was asleep again almost before her head hit the pillow.

ooo

Some time later, Mac woke again, stretching lazily under the covers. She couldn't tell, at first, what had woken her, but it wasn't long before her body made her aware of an unfamiliar pressure in her breasts, growing heavy and swollen with milk.

Puzzled, Mac peered blearily over at the clock, and was shocked to discover that more than two hours had passed since she had last heard Teddy cry. Only while she was reaching for the baby monitor, to make sure that it was actually on, did Mac realize that the space beside her was cold and empty – Will had never returned to bed.

Her bewilderment growing by the second, Mac swung her legs over the side of the bed, and reached down for the dress shirt that Will had discarded the night before. Slipping her arms through the sleeves, she did up just one of the middle buttons, before making her way out of their room and across the hall.

Teddy's nursery was entirely cast in shadow, but peering into the room, Mac could make out Will's tall form sitting on the loveseat in the corner, a tiny bundle asleep in his arms. He didn't look up or even hear her approaching, but as she watched, Mac's keen eyes saw Will's hunched shoulders tremble silently in the darkness.

"Will, what's wrong?" Mac asked, her heart leaping instinctively into her throat.

Will's shoulders stiffened instantly, she could see that even from the doorway. "Nothing," he denied, turning his head away from her, trying to conceal his face in the darkness. "He's fine. I just lost track of time, I guess."

Will's every muscle was so fraught with tension that she could hear it in his voice, which cracked, almost imperceptibly, at the end of that last phrase.

Padding quietly into the room, Mac crouched down beside the loveseat where Will was cradling Teddy. "Now who's trying to protect whom?" she asked. "Tell me."

Will sighed, and hesitated for a long moment. At last, he answered her. "Do you really think we can do this?" he asked softly.

_Oh, Will_, she thought, her heart clenching painfully. Now that she was closer, Mac could see that his cheeks were stained with tears, and it made her want to take him in her arms and squeeze him tightly, until he believed in himself as much as she did.

"I think it's probably too late to send him back," Mac teased, as gently as she could.

Will lowered his head, unconsciously defending himself against her words, but Mac wouldn't let him retreat far before she reached up to cup his cheek and brush the freshest tears away.

"Will, come on. Look at him," she urged, serious now.

Will blinked, but did as she said, looking down for only a moment before rolling his eyes at her. "He's sleeping," he said witheringly.

"Mm-hmm," Mac replied, a knowing smile quirking at her lips. She reached down to stroke Teddy's cheek, and he didn't so much as blink in response.

Will waited, but Mac did not elaborate. "I don't get it, Mac," he said tiredly, leaning his head against the back of the couch.

"What's my favourite position to sleep in?" she asked, now caressing his arm.

"Spooning," he replied slowly. There was never any telling where these leaps of logic of hers could possibly be leading. Fortunately, Will had long become accustomed to this sort of thing where Mackenzie was concerned, and knew he had no choice but to go with it all the way to the end.

"And why is that?" she went on.

Will shrugged. He was pretty sure she enjoyed these ridiculous lines of questioning that made sense to no one but her, but he was far too tired to play this game right now.

"Because your arms are the safest, warmest place in the entire world," she explained, as if this somehow settled the matter.

"So?" Will asked finally, when Mac did not continue.

Mac sighed, as she always did when Will failed to keep up with the inner workings of her brain. She looked, pointedly, down at their son … who was sound asleep, swaddled in the warmth and safety of Will's steady arms.

"Mac, that's not the same thing," Will protested.

"Oh, no?" she asked, still with a playful smile on her lips. "And I suppose when I played My Fair Lady for him when he was fussy the other day, that was just a fluke? Or perhaps you thought that I had developed a sudden and irrational love of musical theatre?"

"What else could it be?" he asked.

"I had a hunch that my little guy would have the same taste in music as his Daddy," she replied, evidently quite pleased with herself. "And I was right! He couldn't get enough of it."

Will was quiet for a while after that. "What are you saying, Mac?" he asked at last.

"I'm saying … I'm saying use your gut," she told him. "Think of Teddy as a smaller version of you, or of me, and you'll probably be alright. I mean, I know he's a heavy sleeper, but do you honestly think he could fall asleep like this for _this_ long if he didn't feel 100% safe in your arms, just like his Mummy does?"

Will grunted noncommittally.

"Will, he should have woken up hungry an hour ago, at least, but where he is right now is just too comfortable."

She could see Will beginning to soften. "You really think so?" he asked, shyly.

"I really do," Mac promised him. "Will, he trusts you. He knows that you love him, that you'd do anything for him, that you'll never let anything hurt him. Other than food, that's really all he needs right now."

Mac waited while Will considered her argument. At last, he blew out the breath he had been holding, and nodded.

Mac shifted a little closer, wrapping her arm around him. "What brought all this on, Will? Even a month ago, I was a wreck, and you were the only thing holding me together. What's changed?"

"A month ago, he wasn't here yet," Will reminded her, gazing down at his son. "He was safe inside you, and there wasn't much I could do to mess him up. Now he's here, and he's real and tiny and perfect, and I feel like he'll break every time I touch him."

"He's stronger than you think," said Mac, unable to resist bending down and kissing Teddy's forehead.

"I'm petrified I'm going to drop him one of these days," Will admitted.

"And yet you got up with him, alone, in the middle of the night, when you could see that I needed sleep. Do you understand how brave that is?"

Will shrugged, his cheeks flushing, but Mac was insistent. "You're good, Will. You're still learning. We both are. Believe me, I don't have all the answers any more than you do. Are we going to be perfect, never make a single mistake raising him? Of course not. But we're doing our best, that's all we can do."

"I just – I just want so much to be good at this," Will choked suddenly, his eyes shining with fresh, yearning tears.

"I know you do," Mac murmured soothingly, leaning up to kiss his cheek. "And that alone tells me everything I need to know, Will." She hesitated, but then plowed ahead, addressing the unspoken concern that had been lingering between them. "I promise you, you are going to be wonderful. You are _nothing_ like your father."

As if her words had breached a dam within him, Will's body instantly began convulsing in silent sobs. He attempted, more than once, to hand Teddy to her while he composed himself, but each time she simply shook her head, secure in the knowledge that her son was in the best possible hands.

Gently stroking Will's hair, she made him lean towards her, nestling his face in the crook of her neck until his tears stopped.

"We can absolutely, _absolutely_ do this," she whispered after pulling back, conviction burning in her eyes. "Never in a million years would I have done this with anyone but you. Understand?"

He nodded, and leaned back against her. She knew he desperately wanted to pull her into his arms right now, and she wanted that too, except for the fact that his arms were currently occupied by far more precious cargo, as far as she was concerned. She settled, for the moment, for slipping her arm back around him and pressing a fierce kiss to his temple.

Neither of them said anything else for some time after that, simply sitting there in silence, gazing down in wonder at their son, who continued to sleep in his father's arms. Mac reached down to stroke his cheek, and slowly, under their watchful gaze, Teddy began to wake, turning into her touch, his tiny pink tongue licking his lips.

Mac gazed expectantly at Will.

"Hungry," he said at once, before Teddy could even screw up his face and begin to whimper. Will grinned, his body language so much more relaxed than it had been when she found him.

"Very hungry," Mac agreed, a proud and happy smile blossoming on her face.

Without another word, Will stood and offered the loveseat to Mac, allowing her to get comfortably settled before passing the baby to her. He bent down to kiss Teddy and Mac each on the forehead, and then straightened up to leave the room.

"Will?" Mac said, before he could get very far. "You know you can stay if you want to, right?"

Will paused in the doorway. "Really?" he asked hesitantly, his voice so full of longing that Mac could have cried.

"Of course, Will," she insisted earnestly. From day one, Will had taken to making himself scarce whenever Teddy needed to be fed, but Mac had always hoped to share this moment with him, never wanting him to feel like there was any part of this experience that he couldn't be a part of. She never knew that he was dreaming of the same thing.

Needing no further invitation, Will assumed Mac's place on the floor, kneeling at her feet and rest his head against her bare legs.

Having kept Teddy waiting long enough, Mac popped open the one button on Will's shirt that covered her chest, and spread the two sides apart. She let out a contented sigh, almost inaudible, as Teddy latched onto her breast and began to feed.

Will gazed up at the pair of them, hardly daring to blink, utterly mesmerized by the sight of mother feeding child. Will would never have described his wife as a woman lacking in confidence, but this was something else entirely. Her love for Teddy was written all over her face, and certainty radiated from every cell in her body, leaving her so relaxed and graceful and comfortable in her skin in a way that Will had never seen her before. It made him fall even more in love with her with every second that passed.

"You are so beautiful," Will said softly, kissing her knee.

Later, when Will's knees began to make their presence known, Mac urged him to join her on the loveseat, and gave Teddy back to him to be burped. Her arms free for the moment, she slipped the unbuttoned shirt off her shoulders and tossed it onto the floor.

Taking Teddy back into her arms and switching sides, she turned and leaned back against Will's chest, trusting him to keep all three of them warm and safe.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

As always, thank you all so much for reading!

I've had the basic idea for this chapter forever, but it seemed too simple at first, so I wasn't sure how well it was going to translate to the page. I thought for sure it was going to be one of the shorter chapters, but then I kept coming up with new details to add. Once that was done, I struggled with it for over a week, because I wasn't sure that it still had the same tone I was really going for. I still may have to go back and change some things one day, but for now, I think I'm mostly satisfied.

I hope you'll leave a review and let me know what you think!


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